


petals

by Felilla



Category: RWBY
Genre: Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Not Canon Compliant, These conversations need to happen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-16
Updated: 2019-02-16
Packaged: 2019-10-29 11:54:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,479
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17807528
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Felilla/pseuds/Felilla
Summary: Weiss seeks out her partner to see why she's not sleeping.----Happens after Volume 6 Episode 8





	petals

Weiss awoke with a start, her heart thundering against her chest. She vaguely remembered running, running and screaming out a name. But there was nothing else.

She groaned softly, very aware of the breathing of the others around her. The Cotta-Arc house wasn't a mansion by any means and currently, all of Team RWBY was shoved into Adrian's nursery. He was sleeping with his mothers for now while they slept on sleeping mats.

Yang and Blake laid across from her, their heads facing each other, black and blonde hair tangling together. Weiss turned to look at Ruby's sleeping form.

She paused.

Ruby's blankets had been shoved off of her mat, left in a heap. She wasn't asleep. Now fully awake, Weiss tried to remember if she'd seen Ruby go to bed at all. They'd all been exhausted after arriving in Argus. Everyone but Ruby.

Even after everything, she seemed like a ball of boundless energy, bouncing from place to place from task to task. But something was off. Weiss had seen it and she was sure the others had too, but everyone was too wrapped up with their own problems to really think about it.

Weiss looked around, but the scythe-wielder was nowhere to be seen. “Ruby?” she called out softly, wincing when Blake huffed and rolled over.

Weiss looked down at her hands in her lap. Was she being selfish too? She'd made it quite clear that she didn't want to return to her- To  _ Atlas _ . And though she didn't know the full extent of everything, Ruby had been nothing but supportive. Supportive of Yang. Supportive of Blake. Of Oscar and everyone else.

She was supposed to be Ruby's support.

Weiss stood and shivered before pulling the blankets back over her shoulders. The floorboards chilled her bare feet as she tiptoed out of the room. She passed the guest room, where the remaining members of Team JNPR were, and glanced over at the empty bathroom before descending down the staircase.

A grumble startled her, too deep to be her partner, and she turned to find Qrow sprawled out on the couch. Weiss's stomach clenched at the reek of stale alcohol coming off of him. She doubted that the Cotta-Arc wives wanted a drunk passed out on their couch.

Oscar was curled up on the other couch and Maria was slumped on an armchair, a book on the arm. Someone had draped a blanket over her.

Weiss turned to check the kitchen for Ruby (that girl was a glutton) before a spark of red caught her eye.

She turned towards the back doors. Ruby sat on the rear porch of the house, her back turned to Weiss, the hood of her cloak drawn over her head. What in the gods’ name was she doing out in the cold?

She hurried towards the door to scold her partner before she noticed something was off. Her hand hovered over the handle. Something was  _ very _ off.

Ruby wasn't moving. Aside from the miniscule rise and fall of her shoulders, she was perfectly still. Eerily still.

Weiss slid open the door slowly. If the noise startled Ruby at all, she didn't show it. Was she asleep? Weiss closed the door. “Ruby?” she called out quietly. “Are you okay?”

What a stupid question. Of course she wasn't okay. She hadn't been okay since their reunion at Haven. The Ruby she had known before was… Not gone, but wearing a mask of who she once was. Pretending.

Ruby didn't move. Panic flooded Weiss as she rushed forward. She reached out for Ruby's shoulder. A flurry of red petals filled her vision and Weiss pitched forward, barely catching herself before she hit the porch. “What the hell, Ru-” Weiss looked up.

Ruby stood in front of her, the expression on her face rivalling that of a hunted animal. Her previous stillness had become a rigid fear.

Weiss's heart shattered.

Ruby lowered her hands, confusion taking the place of her defensive body language. “Weiss?”

Her voice was hoarse and the more Weiss looked at her, the more she noticed. Bloodshot eyes. Reddened cheeks. She was still in her clothing, not the pajamas Saphron offered. She'd been crying.

Weiss wasn't sure what to say as she pushed herself off the ground. Her eyes remained on Ruby as the younger girl dropped her gaze to a patch of flowers that couldn't have been remotely interesting. “What are you doing out here?” Weiss asked once she was in a more appropriate position.

Ruby laughed. It sounded hollow. She waved her hands in the air loosely. “Couldn't sleep. Not really used to being in a… City,” she punctuated the lie with a breathless chuckle.

Why  _ was _ she lying? “Ruby…” she moved to take a step forward until she realized she didn't have her shoes on and Ruby was standing in mud in her boots.

“Why are you up?” Ruby looked concerned now. “Are you okay?”

Supportive. Ruby has become the stem of a rose slowly snapping under the weight of too many petals. “Are you?” Weiss countered.

“Of course,” Ruby gave her a cheery smile that would've fooled everyone else but her best friend. “Why wouldn't I be?”

She held that infuriating smile even as her noticeably shaky hands slid into her cloak. Weiss was starting to snap too, a shout raising into her throat. But what would she even say?

“It's late,” Ruby said. “Are you going back to sleep?”

“Are you?” Weiss retorted and Ruby noticeably flinched back.

She bit her lip before looking away, this time at the fence. Anywhere that wasn't Weiss's eyes. “I have stuff to… Um… Think about?”

She was closing herself off. Quickly. Weiss could see it in her eyes as she took a step back both physically and emotionally. “Can I sit with you?”

She expected Ruby to shake her head or say no but instead, the other girl gave her the faintest nod. She silently returned to the porch and reclaimed her perch. After a moment, Weiss joined her. She raised her gaze to the sky, to the shattered moon. When she looked back down, Ruby was just as she'd found her. Still. Her hands were clasped in her lap tightly as she stared ahead.

Stared at nothing.

Weiss wasn't sure what to do. Ruby used to be so honestly and open and now she just looked… Tired. Really, really tired. “When was the last time you got a full night's sleep?” Weiss asked suddenly.

“Wh-What?” Ruby responded, apparently not as deep in thought as she had been before.

“When was the last time you actually slept?”

Ruby huffed out something that could've been mistaken for a laugh. But Weiss knew it wasn't. “Did you even go to bed?” she asked. Ruby opened her mouth and Weiss looked at her sharply. “Don't lie to me.”

She closed it again. A second later, she released a small sigh and ran her hands through her hair. It was longer now, touching the tips of her shoulders. Weiss's hand twitched the with the desire to push her bangs out of her face.

“I tried.”

The words were so small and quiet that Weiss thought she might've imagined them. But then Ruby was looking at her, her silver eyes shining as she searched Weiss's face. She looked away again. “I haven't really slept since I woke up after-” she cut off. She didn't need to finish her sentence. She inhaled deeply as if she couldn't breathe right. “Everytime I close my eyes, I see-”

Weiss looked over at her sharply.  _ No. No. Finish the sentence. _ Ruby shook her head and laughed. “Come on, let's go inside,” she said as she stood. She turned. “It's freezing out here.”

Weiss caught her hand, holding tight. Ruby was exponentially stronger that her and if she wanted to pull away, she could've. She didn't. “You see what?”

Ruby kept her back to Weiss. “Yang. Blake. Pyrrha. Penny Y-” her voice shook as she gently pulled away from Weiss to wrap her arms around herself. “You.”

Weiss scrambled to her feet to offer some comfort to her friend, but Ruby just backed away. Her eyes darted to Weiss's side, where a still healing scar was underneath her nightgown. She covered the old wound self consciously, only realizing her mistake when Ruby's eyes hardened.

“Ruby,” Weiss started towards her. “It's not your-”

“It's not my fault,” Ruby responded, her smile even more guarded than before. “Of course it isn't.”

Weiss stumbled a step, her chest aching in an all too familiar way. Failure. She'd lost this battle. “I'm going to go for a walk,” Ruby said before sighing. She blinked and Weiss felt her ache grow as a single tear inched down her friend's face. “Good night, Weiss.”

She disappeared back into the house and left Weiss standing on the porch. Alone.

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry. No happy ending. Maybe I'll write one eventually.


End file.
